What do a husband-and-wife team of chocolatiers exchange on
Valentine’s Day? “Not chocolate, that’s for sure,” says John Doyle, who,
along with Kira Baker-Doyle, runs the Philadelphia-based John & Kira’s.
As they enjoy their fancy dinners and roses, the rest of us can swap the
duo’s handcrafted sweets, which highlight flavors from sustainable and
artisan producers: Mint chocolates use leaves grown by students at a
nearby elementary school; coffee-whiskey squares get their kick courtesy
of Mut Vitz Coffee Cooperative, a fair-trade Mexican co-op owned
directly by coffee farmers; salted-caramel honeybees are filled with
Pennsylvania basswood honey that’s lightly caramelized. “We straddle
locavore instincts and a national audience,” says Doyle, who works with
local gardens and rooftop apiaries across the country; partnerships now
span from Hawaii to Washington, D.C. To sample the bounty, try the Bee
My Love Bug Tower, a mix of ganache-filled chocolates, caramel
honeybees, drunken figs, and dark-chocolate ladybugs. ($189,johnandkiras.com)FCS

A version of this article appeared in the February 2012 issue of Fast Company magazine.